Unwrapping Black Friday Cyber Monday 2025 for Advertisers on CTV

The data is in: this year’s Cyber Monday topped 14+ billion in online spending, hitting a new record as the biggest online shopping day ever (up 7.1% YoY). The reason behind the boom? First: shoppers acting on early deals, which is driven in part by generative AI tools behaving like personal assistants to help them research deals and products. Then there’s the “Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) bloom,” where shoppers cave into instant gratification. It’s also the second time Black Friday percentage growth eclipsed Cyber Monday — yet another proof point that shoppers are embracing an “early bird catches the worm” mentality. We analyzed our own MNTN Performance TV data to find out how this played out for advertiser strategies on Connected TV.

The Key(words) to Delivering High Performance 

Keyword count volume was also the highest it’s been since the beginning of the year, indicating that advertisers are making the most of the holiday momentum. 

Keyword count volume was also the highest it’s been since the beginning of the year, indicating that advertisers are making the most of the holiday momentum. 

Moving Towards the Mid-Funnel

Remember the “holiday hammock” we wrote about last month? This year, advertisers played the long game by optimizing their campaigns for mid-funnel performance. This nurtured potential customers who were researching BFCM deals and weighing up whether to bring them into their orbit. Out of the advertisers live on MNTN during Cyber Week, over a third (39%) optimized their campaigns for Cost Per Visit (CPV). Comparatively, this same time last year, we saw campaigns heavily favoring Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and ROAS goals. This represents a significant rebalancing of advertiser strategy toward mid-funnel engagement metrics (visits, completed views) and away from bottom-funnel performance goals (CPA, ROAS). Advertisers sought to maximize qualified site traffic during a period when consumers were actively comparing deals. Additionally, this year we saw over half (58%) of advertisers set up prospecting campaigns during Cyber Week.

First Impressions Count

How did advertisers’ strategies look between 2024 and 2025? In 2025, impressions were more well-paced in the lead-up to the high-intent window of BFCM. Ramp-up time in the two-weeks before BFCM was stronger than last year, with shoppers converting earlier once they saw the price was right. We also saw a similar pattern with conversions; the trendline climbed gradually, with a stronger ramp as more conversions were happening before the peak days. Meanwhile, visits were practically identical YoY. However, since visits were more or less the same despite fewer impressions in 2025, this indicates that the shift to CPV goals has been paying off.

This year’s Cyber Week confirmed what the broader retail landscape has been signaling all year: consumers are shopping earlier, researching more intentionally, and responding strongest to brands that meet them mid-journey. The popularity of planning-oriented and personalization keywords, combined with a decisive move toward CPV and prospecting strategies, reflects a clear shift: where nurturing consideration is now just as critical as closing the sale.